Fleming’s background good fit for superintendent’s position

Terry Webster

Thursday, Dec. 2, 1999 | 11:17 a.m.

None of the three finalists for the Clark County School District superintendent's position has served in that capacity for a large urban school district.

One, James Fleming, has come close.

Before becoming superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District in Southern California, Fleming held a variety of administrative positions in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth-biggest district in the country.

"I was the No. 2 person there. Here, I'm No. 1," he said of his move from Florida to California about 10 years ago. Another reason to move to California from Florida was the high humidity, Fleming said. "The climate killed me," he said. "I like the dry heat like you have in Las Vegas."

Going into a "massive learning mode" would be Fleming's first step if he becomes the new superintendent.

Doing that would entail meeting with School Board members, top administrators and the public. Fleming also would take advantage of input from Clark County School Superintendent Brian Cram, who has said he will provide assistance after his July 2000 retirement.

"If the school board agreed, I would like to hold a series of 'town hall meetings' to hear first-hand the concerns of the public," said Fleming, adding that public input led to the start-up of a new Chinese language program for Capistrano elementary students.

One of the concerns school officials have about Fleming is that his most recent experience is in a much smaller school district than the 217,000-student Clark County district. The Capistrano district he oversees has 44,000 students.

But Fleming points out that he has years of experience in the Miami-Dade County School District that had 276,000 students when he worked there in the early 1990s.

The bottom line on evaluating his work as a superintendent, he said, is his success in increasing student performance.

He points to a trend in Capistrano of improving scores on seven different standardized tests, including the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

"We have showed continual improvement and our scores are well above the state and national norms," Fleming said.

School Board member Lois Tarkanian said she liked the fact that Fleming was an administrator in a large school district.

"He is the only one who has had that specific kind of experience," she said. "And the district he is now in, although it is smaller than ours, is still rapidly growing."

Since 1992 Fleming has been involved in opening 17 new schools in Capistrano, all of them on time and on budget.

His education philosophy covers four main areas: high academic expectations for students, hiring the best teachers, fostering community involvement and accountability.

Educators are responsible for helping all students improve, Fleming said, adding that excuses for a lack of improvement are not acceptable.

The strengths and weaknesses of all of the candidates were aired during public interviews held by the School Board and the Superintendent Search Process Committee.

Following his interviews, some of the criticisms made of Fleming were that he was a name-dropper and a bureaucrat.

Some also said he was too self-promoting. But Fleming said he sees nothing wrong with demonstrating he can do the job.

After watching him in action, Patricia Cunningham, chairwoman for the Alliance for Social Justice, said Fleming is "exactly what we don't need."

"He's too bureaucratic and he puts on a good face," she said. "It's everything low-achieving students don't need in education." In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Fleming started as a social studies and language arts teacher and worked his way up to an associate superintendent for district management.

He also served as a social studies department chairman, an assistant principal for curriculum, the district curriculum supervisor for K-12 social studies education, the director of management training and development, a junior high school principal, the director of community participation and as the assistant superintendent of operations.

Fleming earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. He also holds a master's degree in public administration and a doctoral degree in public administration from Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Fleming also completed requirements for a second doctoral degree at the University of Miami except for a residency, which would require a one-year sabbatical.

Fleming, 56, was born in New York City. He lived in Miami from 1949 to 1991 then moved to his current home in Laguna Niguel, Calif. He and his wife have six children, ages 16 to 36.

If Fleming is made an offer to become Clark County schools' new superintendent, some enticing may have to be done.

"People here (in California) are telling me they don't want me to leave," he said.